Few Choices: Iranians Vote In Strictly Vetted Presidential Election
Iranians are voting on June 18 for their next president, with the country's supreme leader exhorting people to cast their ballots amid calls for a boycott and general dissatisfaction over the lack of choice among the candidates.
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Supporters of Iranian presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi -- the overwhelming favorite in the race -- at a campaign rally in Tehran. The hard-line candidate was one of the Iranian judges in 1988 who oversaw hundreds of speedy trials in which thousands of political prisoners were sentenced to death.
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Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei arrives to cast his ballot on June 18.
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An Iranian voter takes a selfie at a mosque-turned-polling station during voting in the presidential election in Tehran.
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Presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaee casts his vote. The senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has been described as a "perennial candidate" for the presidency. In 2009, he received 1.7 percent of the vote in the election and in 2013 garnered 10.5 percent and finished fourth.
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An Iranian cleric in Tehran holds a flower and a document showing proof that he voted.
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A banner for presidential candidate Saeed Jalili. The former nuclear negotiator was one of three candidates who pulled out of the race on the eve of the election.
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Children wearing uniforms of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps line up with their mother at a polling station on June 18. The organization is a branch of the Iranian military and is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.
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An Iranian woman gestures as she votes.
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A woman walks past banners for Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran on June 17.
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Raisi after casting his ballot in Tehran. The 60-year-old chief justice is widely expected to replace President Hassan Rohani, who is ineligible to run after serving two consecutive terms.
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Police officers at a voting station in Tehran. According to the BBC, several journalists and activists who announced they will not vote in the election have received threatening telephone calls.
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Supporters of Iranian presidential candidate Abdolnaser Hemmati, who until recently served as chief of the central bank, in Tehran on June 18. Hemmati is considered the only moderate in the election.
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Women wait to vote in Tehran at one of around 70,000 polling stations set up across the country.
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A banner for Raisi in Tehran on June 17.